Disclaimer: Don't own! Tite Kubo does!
"How strange," Renji mumbled to himself. He looked around, left to right, back and forth. Ichigo took notice of this and stopped in the middle of his tracks.
"What's up, Renji?" Ichigo asked, befuddled. Renji stopped and turned back to face Ichigo.
"I sense great reiatsu here in the Soul Society." He paused. "I'm not sure where it's coming from, though."
Ichigo frowned. "Do you think it's Ulquiorra?"
Renji shook his head. "I'm not sure, but there's a strong chance that it is."
"You wanna go check on Grimmjow and Szayel, then?"
"We probably should. I have a bad feeling." He turned around and started to walk in the opposite direction. "Something's about to happen. I can feel it."
Ichigo frowned and started to follow him in pursuit.
They hastily hurried back to where Grimmjow and Szayel were being held.
"Come on, I thought you were better than that, Grimmjow." Ulquiorra sneered. He delivered one last blow to Grimmjow's already bruised face. Grimmjow staggered backwards and fell on his bottom and let out a pained groan.
Szayel hurried to his side. "Tag out, you're getting in a worse condition by the minute."
Grimmjow snorted. "I'm only just getting started." He paused and then smirked. "I'm feeling fine, see?" And then he got himself up with all of his pride and glory. Szayel frowned.
"Whatever you say.."
Szayel sat back and watched him fight with the last bit of strength that he had. Of course, he didn't like seeing Grimmjow act so confident when he was asking for his death, but he let hi do whatever he wished. This is Grimmjow, so he's going to do all he can to prove himself worthy of beating someone superior to him. There was nothing you could do once he was in this kind of mood, and it's a mood that Szayel sincerely hates- with a passion.
Ulquiorra pulled his arm back and released his punch onto the side of Grimmjow's face. Grimmjow staggered back once more and furrowed his brows at the Cuatro Espada. He glared at him. Something wasn't right. Something felt quite..off, and Grimmjow couldn't put his finger on it. He knew it wasn't something about Ulquiorra that made him feel that way, but it was something so weird and different. He felt himself growing dizzy, and the whole room was swaying back and forth. He could have sworn there was one Ulquiorra, but now he saw three Ulquiorras.
"What's the matter, Grimmjow?" The cold voice taunted him. "Are you done fighting already? You look like you're about to pass out."
Szayel's breath hitched in his throat when the Sexta Espada at started to collapse on the spot. Szayel ran to his side and sighed with relief when he saw that Grimmjow was still breathing.
Ulquiorra glared at the couple impatiently, still showing his emotionless face. He then looked at the door of the room, feeling reiatsu making its way closer and closer to them. Ulquiorra shook his head.
Ichigo and Renji finally barged into the room, gasping as they saw the Cuatro Espada in the middle of the room. Ichigo hurried to Szayel's side to help assist him. Renji wielded his Zanpakutou and glared at Ulquiorra. "How did you find your way in?"
"It wasn't that hard, really." Ulquiorra smirked. "The Soul Society has such horrible defense."
Renji didn't say a word to this. Instead, he held Zabimaru and held a defensive stance. And, with this, he yelled, "Roar, Zabimaru!"
And he attacked the azure haired Espada, fully confident in himself that he will win this battle.
Ichigo watched with admiration as he attacked consecutively with blows that would kill a normal human in an instant.
When Ichigo wasn't paying attention, Szayel had saw the figure in Grimmjow's stomach move restlessly. He rested his hand on it.
In his mind, he saw the child weeping in a corner, mumbling to himself: "Mama...Mama...What's happening? Papa...where are you?"
Szayel ran to the child's side and embraced him tightly. "What's wrong?"
The child sobbed into Szayel's chest. "It hurts,"
Szayel stared at the weeping child with utter confusion. He didn't understand anything—why was it hurting?
"Where?"
The child shrugged. "All over, I guess." It glanced up at Szayel. "Mama's doing this to me, isn't she?" Szayel winced at the word 'she', and the child went on. "Why? I didn't do anything.."
Szayel frowned and recalled the pathetic fight between the two Espadas. Ulquiorra must have hurt him pretty bad, and during that process—injuring the defenseless child between it all. Szayel patted the child's back softly.
"Sh, sh.. Everything will be all right." He cooed. "You'll be better soon, I promise. And mama wasn't doing this on purpose..."
The child sobbed louder. "You said that the Soul Society would drive the bad man away." It muttered. "How come I can still sense him? And what happened to you protecting mama?"
"I am taking good care of mama, the best I can." Szayel smiled. He mentally cursed himself for being such a smart person, because it seems this child is going to be smarter than Grimmjow would ever be.
"Nuh uh, that's the reason why I'm hurt! You broke your promises!" The child couldn't help but sob louder, the clear stream of snot running from his nose. His cheeks were tear-stained. Szayel couldn't help but feel bad for it, but it sincerely wasn't all Szayel's fault. He has been trying hard. He furrowed his brows, feeling defeated. He had meant to keep Grimmjow from getting hurt. Why did he let Grimmjow attempt to fight Ulquiorra? It was reckless, and Szayel knew the consequences. But instead, he watched him get beaten by Ulquiorra, and now look at the condition he's in. Not to mention the child's own distress and pain. Szayel cursed himself once more for not stopping Grimmjow when he knew that he should have.
"I assure you that mama is okay." Szayel murmured. The child stopped crying and looked wide eyed at his papa.
"Are you sure?"
Szayel smiled, tears filling his own eyes. "Yes, mama is fine."
The child giggled and smiled. "That's great. I couldn't sense if mama was okay or not."
The child slowly started to fade away, and Szayel looked around at the sight displayed in front of him.
Ulquiorra must have left, but Renji was bleeding heavily from a huge gash across his chest. Hitsugaya, Rangiku, and Byakuya were there was well. Byakuya was on the side of Renji, tending to his wounds to the best of his ability. Renji winced every time Byakuya applied a medical item to the wound.
Szayel blinked. This happened within ten minutes? Or, no...perhaps it was longer? How long was he in the vision?
Szayel got up from his spot and walked to the pained Renji. Byakuya paused in dressing Renji's wounds and looked at the scientist. He took some bandages from Byakuya and set it gently on the wound, trying to apply pressure to it without hurting Renji in any way. Once the bleeding stopped, he threw the soiled bandages to the other side of him and grabbed yet a couple more bandages and applied it to the wound. He sat back and looked at the miserable Renji. Byakuya furrowed his brows and looked over at Szayel once more with admiration—something he promised himself that he would never feel for an Espada, regardless if they were still working with Aizen or not. Szayel noticed this, and then grinned.
"Thank you for your help," Byakuya mumbled. "Truthfully, I care for him as much as you care for Grimmjow. If he were to pass away, I wouldn't know what to do."
Szayel shook his head. "It's the least I could do..." Szayel trailed off in the middle of his sentence and leaned to Grimmjow's general direction. Grimmjow was sitting up now, smirking. Byakuya noticed this and he followed Szayel's attention, only to see the smirking Grimmjow.
"Well, that was nice of you," He called from all the way across the room. You could hear the snort right after his comment. Szayel frowned and got up from his spot and sat next to Grimmjow once again. He scanned his body.
"How are you feeling?" Szayel asked.
Grimmjow didn't answer. He stared at Szayel. Szayel furrowed his brows. "Well?"
Grimmjow let out a sigh. "Fine, I guess." He shook his head.
Szayel took this as an appropriate answer and stood up. He smiled and nodded. "Thank you so much for helping. You don't know how much it means to us." He averted his gaze to Grimmjow, who snorted once more.
"Don't mention it," Rangiku piped up and gave a nice, warm smile.
Szayel held out his hand for Grimmjow so he could get up. As soon as Grimmjow was leaning on Szayel, he frowned. "I do believe it is time for us to leave. Grimmjow needs to rest, and not to mention ourselves..." Grimmjow bowed his face to hide the oncoming blush and Ichigo frowned, agreeing with them.
"Yeah," Ichigo mumbled. He bowed, showing his gratitude. "Thank you all. I couldn't have done it by myself, if it weren't for you all. By now," He paused, gesturing towards Szayel and Grimmjow. "they probably would have been taken back to Hueco Mundo—or worse- dead."
Toshiro shook his head. "No need to thank us. We did what we thought was right, no matter if they are ex-Arrancars."
Ichigo smiled. "Right." He walked to Szayel and Grimmjow. "Let's get going."
And they said their farewells.
Author's Note: Another chapter, yayy~
The fight wasn't as involved as I was originally going to make it. I'm not really good at fight scenes anyway, so with my luck I would have ruined it all.
However, reviews are welcomed~